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Since the CMA decided to block the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, the highest competition authority in the United Kingdom has been embroiled in controversy after controversy. After several members of the British government criticized the decision, and that Microsoft has “threatened” with the possibility of leaving the UK as far as Activision Blizzard is concerned, in case of closing the operation.
Well, now the body is back in the news due to negative information for its interests. As it has been revealed by @PostUp_SOGwhich is closely monitoring the entire purchase process, the CMA lied to the British Parliament. In one of its appearances, the agency assured that it had not held specific conversations about the purchase with its American counterpart, the FTC. However, the reality seems to have been quite different.
The CMA lied in one of its appearances in the British Parliament
According to user information, the CMA met up to 26 times with the FTCeither through phone calls or videoconferences, and exchanged up to 76 emails with the agency and its president, Lina Khan, between the start of Phase 2 of the investigation and the final decision issued more than a month ago. This clashes with the statement that we previously cited, in which it was ensured that no in-depth conversation had been held on the matter.
As part of the CMA’s investigation into Microsoft’s anticipated acquisition of Activision, there was engagement with numerous foreign competition authorities. The CMA had releases in place from the merging parties, as well as some third parties, from various foreign authorities, including the FTC and the European Commission.
This allowed the CMA to share certain information with those authorities more freely. One difficulty that the CMA may face in cases like this, and indeed faced in this case in relation to the FTC in the later stages of the investigation, is that these exemptions can be withdrawn, which, while not precluding engagement with counterparties, may limit the extent to which the CMA can exchange certain information, unless other gateways for information exchange are available.
With a couple: Sony CEO admits Sony lied in its CMA findings on cloud gaming
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This statement has been made by the Select Committee on Business and Commerce, which has published this content through a letter in which suggests that the CMA lied, and that they will make all the information they collect available to the British Parliament as soon as they can. We will have to see what possible consequences this has on the CMA, but also on the FTC, that it has yet to issue its final report on the acquisition.